Interview: Crystal Dickinson Brings It to YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU
By: Naomi Serviss Sep. 30, 2014
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YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, the 1937 Pulitzer Prize-winning madcap comedy, teems with star power in this latest iteration of the Moss Hart/George S. Kaufman classic. Directed by Scott Ellis, the cast includes the booming-voiced James Earl Jones, Mark Linn-Baker (Paul Sycamore), Kristine Nielsen (Penelope Sycamore) and Rose Byrne (Alice). Crystal Dickinson, (who won a Theatre World Award for her role in CLYBOURNE PARK), plays Rheba, a domestic in the Sycamore family who's more family member than maid.
"Even though the play is decades old, it's totally now and totally funny," Dickinson said before a performance. "We work things out in rehearsals and once we do that, Scott is so great about letting us try a million different things." The screwball comedy is a visual feast, with a gorgeous painted lady Victorian home as backdrop, designed by David Rockwell. There's Essie (Annaleigh Ashford) pirouetting across the stage tutu-ed and en pointe, her father Paul Sycamore busily concocting fireworks in the basement, and mother Penelope working on her latest art project accompanied by two stage-frightless kittens.
More shenanigans unfold as the play progresses. No spoilers here. "It's very tight, even backstage," Dickinson said. "We're all spot on in staying in our lanes on stage and not speaking on top of others."
One of Rheba's tasks is putting a tablecloth on the dining room table, at top speed and with bull's-eye accuracy in dishware placement. "We all have many actions to perform while we speak. I have to put out a tablecloth properly while I'm saying lines," Dickinson said. "If I don't put it on right, everyone in the audience will be watching it for the whole show. We all like symmetry and I have to time everything right with Kristine. I have to control the conversation in that scene, and if I'm a little bit off and there's a problem, I have to correct it quickly." The intricately paced scenes leave the audience breathless with laughter.
"It's very intricate, the way each character interacts with one another," she said. The Sycamores are an unusual bunch who have taken in strays (not just kittens) who have been informally adopted. The busy plot centers on Alice, who has fallen in love with an upper-crust beau and is seemingly the only "normal" character in the eclectic family.
"This family shows that there is a way to work out any problems with love," Dickinson said. "Alice fell in love with someone from the other side of the tracks and has to find a way to be who she is and still love her family," she added.
"It's not just about the love of two young people, but the love of family and how we elevate that," she said. "There are many revelations in the show and that's why I think people enjoy it so much." Dickinson chose not to research the era in which the play was written or watch the classic movie of the same name. She wanted to go in fresh without preconceived notions of her role. She was also awed by the crisp, comedic writing. "It's so wonderfully crafted, you just have to give in to craft and do what is there and then add yourself," she explained. "It's all about the timing."
Dickinson doesn't have a lot of speaking scenes, but any time she's on stage she grabs attention.
"The characters aren't all part of a biological family," she said. "Whoever wanders in that door somehow gets stuck," she said of the benevolence of the patriarch Martin Vanderhof, dashingly portrayed by James Earl Jones. Explanations about the surname are revealed by story's end.
Dickinson has created her own back story for Rheba. "I imagine that Rheba came into the family when the children were very young and she simply stayed. She's not a typical maid and I think she loves them all and loves her job very much. And nothing that the family does fazes her.
"The ensemble works so well and things trickle down from the top. When James came to read, he was already off-book - he knew all his lines and cues. The marvelous thing about how he worked, was making himself available to all of us," she said. "He helped us all approach things in the same way. The cast members are lovely human beings: kind, generous and fun to be around."
In a play as fluid as this one, miscues are inevitable, she said. "Oh my goodness, I watch the show backstage," she said. "And once, right after the wrestling bit, things got a little out of hand. There's always a tiny nugget that sets everyone off laughing every single night," she added.
One of her favorite scenes occurs when the Kirbys (Johanna Day and Byron Jennings) arrive on the wrong date for dinner.
"It takes the whole cast to make that action work," she said. "Everyone's in on that when they come into the room. I love how the audience breaks up when that happens."
She also loves eavesdropping on love scenes. "I watch and listen to those scenes on the monitor we have. I'm usually changing for the next scene and I just love how they flirt and play around.
"There's something very sweet about those scenes," she said. "Everything works in this play and the audience gets all the information at the top of the show, from the kittens to the ballet, to the snakes and the fireworks.
"I didn't realize how deceivingly easy it looks on the page." Dickinson said. "And she values the feel-good philosophy that reveals itself through the family's patriarch. "Grandfather always says yes to everything. They don't judge people. There could be a crazy taxidermist and it wouldn't matter to them what you did. Love means everything to them. "He's so Zen-like, and that's part of why this man is always smiling. That's who he is, full of joy and ease and relaxed.
"I take that to heart when he says 'Thank you' at the table. I take that very seriously. And he talks about being grateful that everybody's together at the end: 'We've been getting along so far and we do our part and the other part is up to you.'
"That encapsulates the philosophy. And it's packaged in such a jolly play that it doesn't matter what era it's performed. People are always searching for happiness. It makes me so happy when the audience 'gets it,'" she said. "People who come are going to have a wonderful time. It's delicious, fun and hilarious."
YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU is playing at the Longacre Theatre, 220 West 48th Street.
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